The budget season of the 56th Student Association officially ended Monday after the general assembly approved all of the Finance Board’s budget appeal recommendations for the fall 2012 semester.

President Dylan Lustig began by reasserting the importance of this process to members of the general assembly at the meeting, which took place at 7:30 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium.

‘This is an important meeting, and everyone in the gallery is counting on us to make some big decisions tonight,’ he said.

The assembly began by voting on an adjusted funding bill for CitrusTV. The station was denied the $261, 468.30 it requested during SA’s meeting last week for failing to attend its budget meeting.

Student organizations that miss budget meetings must wait until the end of the appeals process to reapply for funds.

The station was approved for $122,635.93, with no dissenting votes and only one abstention.

The largest modification was that the Finance Board did not grant CitrusTV funds for a new set because they felt it was not essential for the day-to-day operations of the station, said Comptroller Stephen DeSalvo.

‘The board had difficult decisions to make because of the way the process works,’ he said. ‘They do have a set right now. While the board may or may not think that set needs to be redesigned in the future, they think that it can make it another year.’

Members of CitrusTV, including Associate General Manager Chip Angeles, were in attendance and thanked the general assembly for its decision.

SA also approved all of the Finance Board’s recommendations for fully funded, partially funded and non-funded bills without debate.

All the bills passed totaled $330,781.35, and their approval marked the conclusion of the first budget meeting of Lustig’s term.

‘I’d like to thank the assembly for all their hard work this week and last week,’ DeSalvo said. ‘I think budget season went pretty smoothly, and I’ll look forward to next season.’

Later in the meeting, Lustig gave an update on the campaign for no-fee ATMs and two new initiatives he is working on.

Lustig said he met with Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Thomas Wolfe, senior vice president and dean of student affairs, and it was determined the plan to sponsor the ATMs is feasible. The next step in the process is pitching this idea to local businesses, he said.

He also discussed a new initiative that would allow students to give back to Syracuse University through their SUpercard purchases.

Purchases made with these funds would be rounded up to the next dollar and given to various SU colleges for projects that benefit students, he said. This program would be optional, and students would be required to consent to it on MySlice, Lustig said.

SA will also look into changing its readership program, which provides copies of The New York Times and USA Today to students free of charge.

The program costs $80,000, and SA currently funds half of this, he said. The change involves the addition of online passes, which will be available to students proportional to the number of physical newspapers being taken, he said.

This change is expected to lower SA’s cost for the program, he said.

Toward the end of the meeting, members of the Judicial Review Board proposed a measure to define acceptable academic absences and a bill to streamline the election process of general members.

Lynde Folsom, a member of the board, said in a report that the Judicial Review Board believes missing SA meetings for social fraternity or sorority events should not be excused. The board felt this is only acceptable in certain cases, she said.

‘Would it be beneficial to your career and is this fundamental to your academics?’ she said. ‘Clearly some fraternities and sororities are, and some aren’t,’ she said.

During new business, Nick Iaquinto, also a member of the Judicial Review Board, introduced a bill that would fundamentally change the way members are elected to the general assembly.

Prospective members would have to go through an interview with members from their home college, he said. Debate would occur at home college committee meetings instead of at general assembly meetings. This would maximize the time SA has on Mondays to accomplish other objectives, he said.

Candidates would be given a recommendation from their home college committee, and members of the general assembly would only be able to accept or deny this suggestion, Iaquinto said. The election process would mirror the way members vote on student organization budgets, he said.

Both of these proposed measures incited debate and will be discussed at a later meeting.

dmsegelb@syr.edu 

Published on April 17, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum